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Topic
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Hi,
I have a noise issue with an upstairs tenant that I’ve been unable to resolve through discussion. I’m on the EC and managed to convince the other committee members to hold a meeting to vote to issue a Notice to Comply to the tenant.
However, the tenant are renters and the unit is owned by a company. The strata manager has so far been unable to reach the company to obtain the renters/tenants details necessary to issue the Notice to Comply for the last week.
What can be done?
Thanks.
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Replies
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Firstly, in NSW the Owner of a rented lot is legally required to provide the Owners Corporation with their tenant’s details within 14 days of the Lease commencing (see HERE); perhaps your Strata Manager should pursue that avenue where a penalty of $550 may be imposed.
Secondly, whilst the proforma Notice to Comply (NTC) provided by the NSW Office of Fair Trading includes a field for the name of the owner or occupant, I’ve in the past, although in a different circumstance, issued and successfully enforced a NTC issued to the “Legal Occupant” and copied to the Owner.
I was able to state at the NSW Consumer, Trader, and Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT) that, in accordance with my Affidavit, I had personally served the NTC upon the person who I knew to be the occupant of the lot – although I admit that success at the CTTT too often depends on how the parties conduct themselves and who it is that makes the ruling.
Thanks for the feedback puff; I’m not at all surprised.
Your next hurdle will be that the Property Manager (rental agent) probably won’t have a clue either. It took me almost 2 years to educate the people who mange rental units in our Plan, and even then I had to make-up a proforma S119 Notification and upload it to our website for their on-going use!
@puff_ng said:
Man, I don’t know whether my strata manager is up to this …
Well don’t use the SM, he will charge the Strata for his time anyway.
If you want you can take the action against the offender yourself or on behalf of the Strata (need a motion paseed at a EC meeting authorizeing you to act on behalf of the EC).
puff – your conclusions about the applicable Form and Sections of the NSW Strata Schemes Management Act to be referenced are correct, but given that the core issue is with the behaviour of the tenants I can’t help thinking that there may be a better approach.
Both the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Consumer, Trader, and Tenancy Tribunal (CTTT) are wedded to a mediation process that’s primarily intended to resolve disputes involving breaches of By-Laws, and I don’t believe that either Organisation would take kindly to you by-passing that step unless you could demonstrate that you and/or your Owners Corporation’s (O/C) independent attempts at that had been entirely frustrated.
So as an alternative why not write to the that Proprietor one more time, and copy their Property Manager (Rental Agent), to explain the nature of the Breaches by their tenant, the E/C’s resolution to issue a Notice to Comply, that they (the Proprietor) are frustrating the implementation of that resolution, and advise that unless the O/C receives the overdue S119 Notification within say 7 days, then the matter will be referred to the OFT; let them sweat by not stating by what process that will be referred.
Then if you don’t receive the information, armed with proof that the O/C and/or its Strata Manager has (again) attempted to obtain the tenant’s details from the Unit’s Proprietor/Landlord, employ the OFT’s Mediation process to facilitate the providing of that information using THIS Form? That will also give you the opportunity to discuss the tenant’s behaviour and the breaches as directly related issues.
Given the nature of the information being sought (the S119), the Applicant for mediation should in my opinion be the O/C, even if as KWP suggested you then attend as an authorised E/C Member representing it.
Sorry to head you down another path, but I’m trying to help you to focus on the core problem and not a peripheral issue.
@puff_ng said:
Thanks for the responses.I actually called NSW Fair Trading after my last post and they told me that breaching s119 is neither a contravention of an order (s202) nor a notice to comply (s203), so an application to penalise the owner under s119 should be made to the local court rather than the CTTT …
The comments from OFT are correct. The matter of pursuing the penalty points for breach of s119 is a local court matter.
225 Proceedings for offences
Proceedings for an offence against this Act or the regulations may be dealt with summarily before the Local Court.
If you notice, the Act only empowers adjudicators and the Tribunal to issue pecuniary penalties in very specific matters, such as those under s202 and 203.
That goes a long way to explaining why the areas of the Act that carry penalty points, and there are a few of them, are rarely pursued.
Why would someone pay all the cost to pursue a breach of the Act in the local court – it would need to be a substantial matter to even make it worthwhile.
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